I Was Let Down by the K’Road Circus

In December last year I was informed K’Road was planning a street circus, somebody had told me that it only happens every couple of years so I was stoked, assuming it was something I had only one opportunity of seeing with me leaving Auckland in a few months. I had already stayed in Auckland for a year and a half by this point and imagined a myriad of clowns and parades. My love of horror movies and other peoples general displeasure has created a strange fondness towards clowns and people’s reactions surrounding them. I figured I would get some great shots of screaming children during a big street parade and leave satisfied.

What I actually found was what appeared to be a group of strangers mistakenly turning up to the same space in similar themed getups. The official K’Road bulletin told local businesses that “thousands of extra people” turn up to these things. This wasn’t really the case. There was an increase in foot traffic compared to your average Thursday but it wasn’t anything to get excited about.

What really disappointed was the road was functioning normally, the shops looked normal, everything seemed normal. I headed to St Kevin’s Arcade and found a juggler and a ‘throw a shoe in a hole’ game (I won some socks, pretty great socks tbh, thanks Pat Menzies) and the best part of the whole thing; a pop-up sex shop.

The street entertainment was the real cause of my disappointment, the individuals involved were decent enough, they were putting in effort but I felt let down by the size of the whole affair, There was no real excitement or much for the taste-buds attached to my pupils, I wanted a feast and I was given an appetiser and was swiftly kicked out of the door. Every time I saw somebody related to the entertaining of passers-by it felt as though they were on their way to a fancy-dress event or were lost, there wasn’t enough going on to justify their existence, this could have been because they were spread so far apart.

The K’Road circus is a good idea, it just needs more planning and more hype, it could be great.